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City Management Lessons - Franc Moufarrej a blueprint for leading with humility and heart
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A childhood spent dodging sniper fire is a brutal teacher, but it forged one of the calmest leaders we know. Chief Building Official Frank Bufarish joins us to share how growing up in Lebanon’s civil war shaped a perspective that now powers Livermore, California’s forward-looking building division—where empathy, clear thinking, and relentless coordination turn complex projects into community wins.
We dive into the real work behind a modern city: early alignment meetings that eliminate rework, juggling code enforcement with plan review and inspections, and shepherding everything from national labs and Tesla operations to hydrogen hubs and designer retail. Frank explains why customer service is the backbone of public service, how to de-escalate at the counter, and what it takes to deliver predictable, high-quality results for builders, homeowners, and major employers.
Technology gets a thoughtful audit. We talk phased digital permitting, hands-on support at public workstations, and when drones or AI make sense for safety and documentation. Frank shares candid views on California’s energy rules and accessibility leadership, why mandates should match technological readiness, and how ADUs both expand housing and pressure small-lot neighborhoods. We also celebrate the human side—family, gardening, and wineries that keep Livermore grounded and vibrant, from Wente’s history to boutique valley favorites.
If you care about city building, inspections, accessibility, housing, or the nuts and bolts of economic development, this conversation delivers practical insights and a steady moral compass. Subscribe, share with a colleague who cares about better service, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What topic should we unpack next—ADUs, drones, or advanced team meetings?
Childhood In A Civil War
SPEAKER_01Growing up in the middle of a civil war changes everything. Frank Bufarish, childhood med bomb shelters, sniper fire, and uncertainty. Lessons that would later shape a lifetime of calm and steady leadership. Today, Frank is the chief building official for the city of Livermore, California, leading one of the most dynamic and forward-thinking building divisions in the state. His journey from a war-torn Lebanon to building a career defined by service, integrity, and innovation is a story of perseverance, gratitude, and heart. In this episode, Frank shares how those early hardships shaped his approach to leadership, and how empathy, problem solving, and perspective guide every decision he makes. We discuss Livermore's unique blend of growth and community from Tesla operations, research labs, and hydrogen fuel production facilities to housing, co-enforcement, and customer service. Frank also opens up about the human side of his work, the importance of teamwork, his commitment to helping others, and his pride in the city he serves. On a lighter note, we talk about family, gardening, and his favorite Livermore wineries that give him that perfect connection back to his roots. It's a powerful conversation about perspective, perseverance, and public service. And a reminder that leadership often grows from the hardest beginnings. This is Takis Talk. I'm your host, Greg Diktakis. Let's get into it with Frank Muharish. Alright, so the other day, you showed me a training video of your son doing a water rescue, jumping out of a helicopter. Really cool stuff. I really enjoyed that. You have some you uh you've built some exceptional people. You got a firefighter, you got a chef, forensic scientists, my hero, the world traveler. You're pretty good at building things and you've built an impressive career in a short period of time. But you started as a young man in Lebanon. So can we start with that story? Because it just that just seems like to most Americans, thing lifestyle and everything that you had to go through there is it's unreal. So what was it like growing up in Lebanon?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, you know, it started out the you know, the minute you can remember and open your eyes, you know, we were in a war. It was a civil war going on, and we were in and out of bomb shelters every day. And then when there was a little bit calm, my my dad went down to the American consulate in Beirut. We lived
Family Escape To The United States
SPEAKER_00up on towards the mountains, and and he says, you know, I need to find a way to get my family out of this to you know see if I can go to some other place. I have four siblings, three other brothers, and my sister. So he was worried about us and wanted to find a way out. Went down to the American embassy. To his surprise, the person down in the embassy says, Hey, you guys have a sponsorship. Somebody has sponsored you to come to the United States. And he says, Who would have sponsored us? So they looked into it. It was my Aunt May, my Aunt May, my mother's sister, she had done the paperwork, and he didn't, you know, it was a surprise. It wasn't something that he was just trying to find information. So, you know, God sends you in mysterious ways. So he came home, did the paperwork, and all of a sudden we landed before my 10th birthday in New York, JFK, and we went over my uncle's in Boston. We lived there for uh for a for a little while, started school. My my dad and brothers started working, and here we are, living the you know, American, American dream. And of course, while we were living the American dream, something happened. My dad was the mayor of the town for 32 years running. He couldn't stay in the United States for long periods of time, so he would come, he would stay a month here, and he would leave back to Lebanon for six months and back and forth. On one of his trips, he had a heart attack, and my mother freaked out and said, Well, you're not going back by yourself, I'm going with you. Me and my sister were minors, so we had to tag along. We went back, and I lived there, you know, until my 18th birthday, where I came back and been here ever since. So it was a bunch of trials and tribulations, but you know, the world throws you a whole bunch of things along the way. It's how you respond to them. And I'm thankful that we landed here in the United States.
SPEAKER_01Wow. I
Front Lines And Sniper Fire
SPEAKER_01I think you I think you told me uh on one occasion you were at least on one occasion, you were actually had been shot at. I mean, those are the types of things that the people can't wrap their head around.
SPEAKER_00You know, well, uh where the conflicts were, we were direct in the front line. We were directly in the front line uh with another town. So you can wake up in the morning and look across to the town. You know, it was you know a good half a kilometer away, and you couldn't show your head. You're you're gonna be sniper dad. Somebody's gonna see you. My my family also, my dad had livestock. If the livestock was was out grazing, they would shoot the livestock. So we couldn't get our head, you know, you couldn't show your head out there. And me and me and my mom were tending to the vegetable garden, and then we got pinned down for a while. And yeah, they they see you in the morning and they shoot at you. To the point is in the moonlight, you couldn't water your plans in the moonlight because the glare of the water, they would see the glare of the water from the other side from the moonlight, and then they would just randomly start shooting. They suspect something is happening. They couldn't see you, but they see the glare of the light, and you know, they would unleash hell, you know, towards towards your side. So yeah, we we saw many tragedies. Neighbors got, you know, blown up, and you know, don't want to be too graphic, but war is held, as they say.
SPEAKER_01It's uh so so many people. The hardest thing you know is the hardest thing you've experienced, right? I I don't get out much, and but I went and uh I did an inspection the other day, and this uh gentleman, I don't know, probably late 30s, early 40s, and he's very distraught. His inspection didn't go off right the first couple times, and so he's unloading on me. And with this is such a so he's been he's he's he's his own contractor. And this is so difficult, and I've never been through so much stress. And he has a home in the nicer part of town, he's remodeled the whole home, he's added an ADU stick built, not one of these prefab things. He's complaining about how he's ordered this uh special order species of wood floor that won't be there in time for the baby reveal party. And you know, I I'm thinking of this and I'm thinking, you know, you're such a crybaby. Is this the worst thing you have to worry about? And then you know, you have stories like yours. And so I think in your world, your perspective and your range is far different than this guy's. And so I I think that kind of communicates when we are working and you're in the permit center and you're doing things because things don't seem to rattle you and you seem to have you seem to solve problems quickly. People come in, they're you know, my plan review, my whatever, and it seems like you're able to pacify and negotiate those things quickly. And I think maybe this has a bearing on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know,
Perspective, Empathy, And Problem Solving
SPEAKER_00you're you're shaped by your experiences, and it's it's hard sometimes, you know, not to say, hey, you're a crybaby, I've gone through this. You have to keep that really deep in your in your thoughts, not to bring that out, you know, to be kind and to help people whichever way you can. But but you know, if you take the time, listen to people and look them in the eye and and they make them feel that they're heard, you can solve any problem. I agree.
SPEAKER_01As a young child, I don't know. What did you have aspirations? Did you have did you have goals, anything? Did you ever think that one day you'd be in the United States, you'd be a building official? I know you're very involved with ICC and influencing codes internationally. Did did you ever think in that direction, or did you think you were going somewhere else?
SPEAKER_00No, my my journey was going completely, completely uh basically the opposite direction. You know, back in in Lebanon, we had orchards, fruit orchards, grapes, peaches, and my dad, you know, supplied all the fancy hotels with with with these great products. And I got the bug to to be a I wanted to be an agricultural engineer. So when we finally landed in the United States, I'm like, wow, this is this is different, this is the place to do it. So that's we made our way to California, and my my goal is to was to go to UC Davis. They have a great agricultural program, and that's where I wanted to be. So that was the goal. So I started working, work in construction, family business, and then you know, life takes you in different directions. Met my beautiful wife, we got married, we had kids, and then you know, construction was was my point. So I embraced it and it embraced me. I come to love it, and you know, I still have the love of agriculture. I I have a garden every year, so that's my connection to back to where where I started. I didn't lose that connection, but I didn't do it in a professional way. It's more of a hobby now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. We always look forward to the vegetables from the garden, the organic, and you even have your your free-ranging chickens, sort of. That's kind of cool. Hey, so you've had a lot of success and you're good at what you do. So, what would you say? I know this is always a tough question for people because you have to look it's got to be introspective,
From Agriculture Dreams To Construction
SPEAKER_01right? But what what would be uh maybe the single most uh driving characteristic? Is it hard work, is it luck, is it personality, competitiveness? What do you think is that one thing that that pushes you or makes you better?
SPEAKER_00You know, the what pushes me, I think I what I learned from my mom and dad is especially, you know, tagging along with my dad at a young age, going with him to the to the council meetings when when he was the mayor, is helping people. And I think I got the bug there. And what drives me is what we said before, solving those problems, looking at the people on the other side of the counter and picturing yourself there on the other side and putting yourself in in their position. I think helping people, the the service part is the one that drives me and puts me in my happy place. And like I said, I love my job, and it allows me every day to, as you know, Greg, we work together, and uh you never know who's gonna walk in in that door. You never know what problem you get to solve. You get to solve it. You know what I mean? It's not like, oh, I have to solve it. No, I'm looking forward. Well, you know, I can picture somebody walking through that door. I'm like, okay, let's uh let's see what we can learn today.
SPEAKER_01So I it shows so I want to get into our jurisdiction a little bit because I always geek out and I'm always very proud of what we do, and it's very uh technical because we do so many different things, but it just back to what you just said, it's that customer service thing, it seems to drive uh so everything that within a department starts with leadership, right? And so everything that we do focuses on customer service. And although there's uh so many technical demands on what we do, the customer service seems to always come
Customer Service As A Core Value
SPEAKER_01through. And I I guess that's what you just said is how you how you're focusing on helping folks and pushing pushing things forward and and just making it happen for them. Talking about Livermore and the diversity. So we have some we have a very dynamic economic development director, Mr. Cardwell there, and he's curating all sorts of projects. I think we just lost out on the fusion fusion research facility, but we have the the bus plant. That's a big one, Gillig. So just as a plug, if anybody needs buses out there, I drive by their yard every morning, and it's always kind of cool to look over and see the logos, what cities they're going to, airports, colleges. It's that's really neat. We have the uh premium outlets, so we have every famous designer under the sun that we have tracts, we have uh you know, public housing, shelters, hydrogen fuel facilities, we have research facilities that seem like they're out of a sci-fi movie. So all these things will land in your lap first. In a lot of other jurisdictions, they're kind of boilerplate, you know, they do a lot of the same thing over and over again. But for you, it seems that you have to use every page in the code book and you're always adapting to something new. So what's that process? How do you how do you do that? Just dealing with all the variables all the time.
SPEAKER_00Look, I tell you, I tell everybody that Livermore has the building division in Livermore is is totally unique, different than anybody else. We have our fingers in so many things that when you're talking to somebody and explain to them that, hey, not only we do building plan review inspections, deal with the with the counter, we also do code enforcement. We call it neighborhood preservation, we do special events, we do block parties, we do street closures, we do addressing, we issue addresses, we do community banners, we do reports of residential record. I mean, we have our fingers in in so many the bill the the building division in Livermore is should be called something different. So, but but we you know you you you step up, you you enjoy it, and you you deal with everything that comes to you. You're right. We have so many diverse projects in in Livermore. We have the San Francisco Premium Outlets. You know, they we waited seven years for that project and and fighting 17 different state and federal agencies with with all with Native American issues as well, there with environmental issues. We so that was a seven-year journey until I was able to break ground in there. Gillig came, we we brought Gillig back from from a different town from Hayward. Sorry, Hayward.
Livermore’s Diverse Project Portfolio
SPEAKER_00And you know, they and they brought more people with them. We've got Drexelmeyer, they support Gillig, they and they support Tesla. We have Tesla operations, two huge buildings that do Tesla operations as well. We also have two national laboratories here in Livermore, which we do plan review for one of the national laboratories. At one point we did plan review and inspections inside one of the laboratories. So it is a a and we have the gamut from you know real high groundbreaking technologies like the hydrogen hub, and we have LAM research and so and and many others, form factor semiconductors. So it is it is you know firsthand, you know, you deal with these guys you do, and your team does inspections every day. But by the way, I want to put a plug to to Greg in this interview, is you know, I can't do any of this without my team, and he's one of the best. So very kind, thank you.
SPEAKER_01Hey, when you were talking about the uh the outlets and some of these others, it's popping memories. I remember doing a uh I had to go out and do a final on Carl Lagerfeld, and it's a I don't know, Tuesday, Wednesday morning, something like eight o'clock. And we're about to final that thing, they're gonna open for business, and there's a line outside, probably 30, 40 people deep waiting to get in there. And the success that that mall has is just mind-boggling to me. I mean, I don't know. I do shop there and I send all my family there, but the designers uh doing a I think it was the Gucci store, and they had Italian cabinet makers come over from Italy, and we were sitting there doing all the conversions from metric to American, doing inches and fractions. It's it's kind of fun. And you meant you mentioned some projects in there that I've forgotten about in the the tech lamb. You know, you so we go out and we do the inspections, and you know, it's something out of a sci-fi movie, like I mentioned earlier. You know, you're donning gear on, it's 20 minutes of preparing to go in and do a five-minute inspection, but you're you're putting all the pieces to the puzzle together before we get there. And I just for us, we're just checking the boxes, but to be there and and I don't know, looking at all that stuff in advance. So you you're putting it together with you know, bringing in all the documentation, getting all the private sector players in line, the engineers, the architects, going to our plans examiners, so impressed with all the moving parts that come together, and it's such a complete product by the time it gets to us. And I I don't know, it just seems like you put a lot of effort into that. You you are very good at coordinating all of us.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I I would the the part that you know that's unique as well about Livermore is we try to bring the parties together, see them at one table earlier on. We call that an advanced team meeting. And you know, we bring all of the divisions and all of the stakeholders
Coordinating Complex Stakeholders
SPEAKER_00together and have them ping off of each other, send us all their questions. So when these plans end up getting to us, they're pretty much ready to, you know, you're not gonna have you know six back and forth reviews. So we try to do a little preempting.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha. Are there any jurisdictions that you look at that you try to mimic?
SPEAKER_00Well, look, there's there's I learn and I'm in touch with all of the leaders with our jurisdictions around us. We have our neighbors here in in Pleasanton, in Pleasant Hill, in Dublin, in San Ramon. You know, you're always, you know, you're always gonna get something where you're you're gonna look in the mirror and question yourself and say, gosh, am I doing this the right way? Let me reach out to my colleagues in the other cities, see how they're doing it, see how they were handle it. So so that's something I do a lot is look in the mirror and you know, not feel that I need, you know, I'm the one doing it right or or not. So, you know, let's see what other people are are doing so we make sure we're on the right path. So the jurisdictions around us, you know, they they do a decent job and we paint things over, you know, from each other, and and we and we try to be consistent. We're all different, but you know, to if I want one jurisdiction, you know, we all have we all have our good and we all have our our our challenges. So I don't know if I can pinpoint one that's doing everything perfectly because I I don't think in this industry there's something specifically perfect. I don't know if this is the question the answer you were looking for on this one.
SPEAKER_01No. So what what actually where this was leading is so you mentioned code enforcement, we do that, and so you recently traveled, you were in Europe, and you're sending me pictures from Spain of a graffiti store. And it's actually a store, I think you said that tell me the story because it's so different from what we what we do here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was a graffiti store. You go in there and you buy the cans and the colors to go do graffiti somewhere. And I was I was floored that that type of store can can exist. There's you know, advertising big spray cans in the in the window. I remember taking a picture and sending it back to you. I'm like, wow, our city manager will be beside herself if she saw something like this in Livermore. But yeah, the I mean, uh as you
Learning From Neighboring Jurisdictions
SPEAKER_00know, you've traveled throughout Europe as well. Graffiti is not a big deal. You see it everywhere, you see it in the train station, under the bridges, going on a boat, it's all over the place. I walked down in in Prague, down the street. I passed the graffiti every single day going to to breakfast from from my hotel, and it it's not a big deal to them. I couldn't understand if what the graffiti said, it was in a different language, but but it was graffiti, it was right on the wall. I think they view it more as art and and they they let it happen. Personal opinion, do they have it right or do we have it right in terms of graffiti? You know, I think we have it right. I think there's a there's a time and a there's a place for somebody to express their talents. And I tell you, some of those guys and gals that do this are super talented. I see, you know, art on the walls, but but uh but in the same vein, I don't think it's the right spot and the right location to be right there. So it would be great to give them you know a an outlet where they can do their art. And and you know, I think people will appreciate it more when it's in a different location where where it's presented in a different way. Maybe, maybe, hey, this is my niche. I need to do a graffiti gallery, maybe, maybe that's something.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna switch things up just a little bit and found
Graffiti, Culture, And Urban Norms
SPEAKER_01something very funny online, but so tech. So we had Wayne on board from uh Irving, Texas, and his his saying is always it depends in terms of bringing tech on board. During your tenure there, you're the one that's transitioned us over to digital permitting for the most part. I think we're all digital now. And so what's your perspective on first adopting tech? Are you an early adopter or you wait and see, let somebody break it and fix it?
SPEAKER_00I think we we did a wait and see. Let's let's see, uh, let's learn from uh everybody else's mistakes before we jump in. You know, older guys like me like like the feel and touch of paper. We like to turn the pages, we like to go back and forth, we like to hear the crackling and and rustling of paper. It makes us feel like we're alive, we're doing good, but you know, the clicking on the computer turning the page is not that exciting. So, but that wasn't the uh the motivating force, you know, to wait. It is it is not a straightforward task to just transition. I mean, we had you know hundreds of projects that are in the pipeline, they were all paper, physical paper. And, you know, we we needed, we knew we were behind, we needed to transition. And, you know, many people worked on this, you know, trying to get the right people, the right platform for us to adopt. And all of the platforms, they do a decent job, and they're all they have some sort of a challenge.
Going Digital: Permitting Transition
SPEAKER_00So it doesn't matter which one you pick, you're gonna get some real amazing results, and you're gonna get a lot of challenges. So we broke it up. We we said, okay, let's do residential first, and then we the driving force was one of my you know very seasoned and experienced techs, Denny. She was the driving force, she's the one that took us over the hump and and got us in there. She's super meticulous, she's attention to detail, to the point where, you know, Denny, we need to move forward, but she needs to get it perfect before we push the button. And we did the residential first. We tried that for about seven, eight months, and then we turned the rest of them on, all of the commercial and everything else afterwards. So it is a challenge, it's still a challenge every day because you your problems shift where you can solve a problem right at the counter with a piece of paper, I can put a note on the plans, I can mark the plans and you know, move things forward. Now it's a different process, and a lot of our customers, you know, are not used to tech. And they're like, oh my God, the world was so much better when I can walk to the counter and Frank or Blake or Greg, you guys can mark my plan and I go and build it. But you know, we're we're dealing with other challenges. That's why, you know, kind of on that customer service vein, we have two self-serve computers at the in the permit center, where if your computer is not working at home or you're having challenges, you can come to the counter and you can have your thumb drive and walk in there, do the whole process right there, upload it, and you know, an added bonus. We we have our techs, they can walk, walk to you and standing next to you on top of your shoulder there on and help you through it. So we kind of tried to bridge both worlds and recognizing not everybody is tech savvy, and we try to support all the folks that that need that extra bit of hand holding.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I get that. I've been up there and I've had several people tell me that they prefer coming in and having the face-to-face and being able to ask their questions, the more personable human side of it all, right? Rather than just detaching. So along the whole tech thing, I want to see what your forecasting is. Some other jurisdictions are starting to experiment with drones. What's your feeling on drones? You see any use for them in the future?
SPEAKER_00I do. I I think there's there's certain aspects of what we do that can be served by by going to the really higher tech. It's I don't want to be stuck back in you know in time. I want to keep Livermore, being on the forefront in technology. But you know,
Drones, AI, And Safety Tradeoffs
SPEAKER_00uh like the the way the the wait and and learn a little bit is is my approach to see how things are going down the line with with somebody else. I don't want to jump in. I know there's some people doing it right now. I you know, we're having some big buildings, we're having some high roofs, and I and I see that not sending our folks all the way up there, sending the technology up to take pictures and to do it, because you know, you're all about safety, not for the people that we're building for, but for our folks as well. So I think there's room for technology drones in the future.
SPEAKER_01Did an inspection and the uh gentleman is a uh supervising inspector or something like that for a local jurisdiction, and he was telling me that they are starting to experiment with AI inspections. And he says the way that it works is somebody goes out and puts some type of device right in the middle of a room and it does a 360 scan of the room, and then it could do an inspection based on that. And so my thought was if I have to send a person to deploy the equipment in the room to take pictures of it to then do the inspection, why don't I just send the inspector to do the inspection? So I feel that some of the tech is kind of lagging. I think you're just creating more work. Um but so we try to do use AI a little bit to to do some of our work here when we were doing some research on you. Did you know that your dad was a tank mechanic? Tank mechanic?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's what it said. I'm like, wow, that's yeah. He didn't he never said that if he was if he was. I never knew that he may have been. He wasn't a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01The thing that's crazy is you you can't uh you can't trust this stuff. So we use it, we think it's it's saving us time, but then going back and proofing it and everything else. So it is a time save, it is a helpful tool, but you can't trust it 100%. So uh that's my Thing is, I love tech, but uh you can't rely on it entirely. They're still working on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean we I think we we we have to embrace bits and pieces at a time, not go all jump in and and and say, okay, you know, put all the chips in one basket and say, here's the AI basket, that's all we're doing. I think it's a gradual, you know, adoption of of things when when they get a little bit more trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01I really love our Livermore community. And
Community, Food, And Local Wineries
SPEAKER_01the other day we were running late, we couldn't make dinner. So I told the kids I'd buy dinner if they went and got it, and sent them over to Livermore to, I think it's called Sons of Liberty, got everybody some burgers. And it was a Thursday evening, and they come back with, My God, it's so busy downtown, we couldn't even find a place to park. You know, so-and-so dropped me off, had to go around the block and come back and pick me up. We have a very vibrant community, and it's this evening at time. I didn't even know how busy it was. So, you, what is your favorite winery? What is your favorite restaurant? Ah, now we're getting into it.
SPEAKER_00Everybody's not gonna like me when I That's all right.
SPEAKER_01Everybody's entitled to an opinion, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. I'm you know, I like these little little little enclaves. I like Cooter Ridge Winery here in Livermore. They do boot Bordeaux style wines, they do a great job, and it's it's a nice little spot. Not that all of the rest of them around me are not great. Las Pacitas Winery does a fantastic job with their whites. I love their whites. You go to Wente, the ambiance is incredible, and they're they're doing a good job. You know, we we have you know over 40 plus wineries here in the Livermore Valley. And I and the restaurant portion, gosh, I used to love Wente restaurant when the restaurant was was here, but but we have you know, we have some sushi restaurants here that I like. Look, and I and I love going out, but I can cook most anything. The I usually go out to the stuff that I can't cook, usually sushi. I go out and either I go to Wasabi Bistro or somebody in downtown to get to get my fix in sushi maybe twice a month. So that there you have it.
SPEAKER_01I gotcha. I'm not a huge sushi person, although the kids are, so I kind of stay away from that. But I I'm with you there. We've I can't remember the last time we were there, but we had gone to Boa Ventura, I think it's called. They had some Reds, and then Concan and Wente, some amazing venues, and it's just Livermore. It's not on the radar when you're talking the Napas and things like that. It never comes up, but it's such a well-kept little secret.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Livermore has a has a deep history into wine. I mean, Wente created the first Chardonnay label in the world back in in the 1930s. So it's we we we are, and then the Wente clones are used all over. The vine clones are used throughout Napa Valley. I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01I did know I did read somewhere that I think Livermore
Livermore’s Next Decade Of Growth
SPEAKER_01wineries were there long before Napa wineries were. So in terms of Livermore, you have your finger on the pulse of what's going on, what's brewing, what's not brewing. What changes do you see in Livermore in the next 10 years?
SPEAKER_00You know, I see Livermore being this, you know, I don't want to say metropolis, but it's a thriving town that is sought after throughout the area. We are now, we're building more housing. We have such a great mix of housing, tech, industry. So it's it's uh, I think it's you know, this is just the beginning. I mean, back 10, 15 years ago, we worked on our downtown. The downtown is is an amazing place as you mentioned before. It's so busy every night. And we have all of our neighbors here, neighboring cities, people in there. I talk to them all the time. They said, Oh, we're going to Livermore for dinner. You guys have such a diverse choice for restaurants. We can do sushi, we can do Italian, we can do Chinese, we can do Greek, even, right? That's up right up your alley, Greg. There, there you go. So I think we're we're in a great spot. We're positioning ourselves to attract those manufacturing jobs into Livermore and providing the housing to keep them here in Livermore, to cut down on the commute and and to keep them working and living here in Livermore. That's that's the goal. You talked about our economic development department. They're doing a great job. They're we're partnering with economic development to create this. They've created this, what they call as a concierge program, is where when they see, you know, they try to attract industry into Livermore. And from the community development perspective, we try to don't want to say fast track it, but we try to give them a little bit more priority, a little bit more love, if you will, to bring them in faster in there. So I think we're yeah, we gotten to the point, is uh we've really embraced this area, and we have a lot of people that are working in the city right now that love Livermore and working for Livermore, not just coming in there and you know, collecting a a paycheck. You can feel that people really care about the city and they want to see it thrive for years and years to come.
SPEAKER_01I think it's going to. I think we got a good plan, I think we got some good leadership and things are being executed. So yeah, we we lived in a neighboring town and uh we would always jump ship, we'd always come to Livermore for whatever. And I I think they just have it together. I wanted to you're very deeply involved with ICC code hearings and all sorts of other things. So one of the things I wanted to ask is there seems to be different, whether the ICOD or California codes. So California has to do its own thing in terms of the codes. Do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing, or would we benefit from just having one national standard?
State Codes, California Nuance, Accessibility
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, we take that national standard and we treat it to our liking here in in California. Sometimes, you know, a little bit to our frustration when we're dealing with stuff related to energy and and and you know, going forward where we feel sometimes it's it's a little too far, you know. And my approach is let the technology catch up before we demand somebody do this or that. Let the technology, you know, invest in that technology to bring all what you want to accomplish, which is you know, things that help the environment and reduce the the need for fuel combustion and all of that. But you can't just do it abruptly. You have to, you know, wait for that technology to catch up so we can do that. We can accomplish what you want at the end, but it may not be tomorrow, it may be a week from now. That that's you know, we we are in California. At some point, the rest of the country follows us, but it doesn't mean we're you know we're doing everything perfectly. Definitely, I would like to, you know, you know, going into what I like about what we do is we're at the forefront of accessibility in the country. California accessibility is like no other. I mean, you go to another state and then you see, oh my gosh, this would never pass. And you, Greg, you're the expert in this field, you're you're the CASP in this field, and you see it all all the time. I do, I'm proud of the the CASP aspect of of Livermore, where they go a little bit above and beyond to make sure we have great accessibility.
SPEAKER_01You mentioned things in their time. So we run into problems with ADUs all the time. People will put in ADUs and the neighbors will just lose their minds. So, how do you feel about that? Have they gone too far? Did they not think the process all the way through? Is there some way that maybe there's a fix here, or is it just it is what it is and we just leave it alone?
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, they the the the state, you know, their heart is in the right place. They wanted to provide more housing. And at you you feel at some level they're solving the housing crisis by you know easing the requirements
ADUs, Neighborhood Impacts, Empathy
SPEAKER_00for ADUs. And that's why the you know, you you feel the push and the the requirements were eased to put them four feet away from the property line. And every day or every year there's a Senate bill that eases any requirements from utilities to to paying fees and and what have you. Like I said, their heart is in the right place, but not all things are thought of completely. They leave it up to the municipalities to solve these problems. And some of those problems are very challenging. I mean, you you I get two, three people a week at the counter, you know, you know, upset to say, how could you? How could you allow this to happen? Basically in my backyard. They're so close to my property line, I don't see the sun anymore. And I had a garden there, and now somebody, I have a window looking at me down from from the other side. I lost my privacy, and so it's it's it's a big challenge. And we explained to them where this is coming from, and in there. Is it gonna solve? My big thought for ADUs is these older neighborhoods, you know, where where you have very small lots, especially in downtown, and then you go squeeze another house right in the backyard. I know people need housing, but it just changed everything for for the neighborhoods. And and that's where when you have a big lot, there's no problem. It's it, you know, anything you can make, anything work, and the neighbors are not are fine. But you have 5,000 square foot lots or smaller, and then you're squeezing another 800 square foot in addition to the house in their backyard, and then you've disrupted all their, you know, everybody else's world on the other side. So that that's that's the portion that we have to deal with every day. You have to, you know, you be empathetic and compassionate and explain to them, and and you know, people are uh, you know, you may convince some, but others are are gonna still be upset. Yeah, you can never make everyone happy, right?
SPEAKER_01Something a little happier. Like you're you're very involved with ICC, you're very involved with our local chapter, and you always lead the charge every year for our installation dinner. I want to hear about the installation dinner. I want I want people there. Tell me about it.
SPEAKER_00Ah, our installation dinner is like no other. I love our peninsula and Monterey chapter, but guys, you have to come to the East Bay chapter installation dinner every year. We have it at Scotts Seafood in Oakland. It's a great
Building Community Through ICC Chapters
SPEAKER_00venue, great place. I don't know how it fell in my lap, maybe because I was the oldest one still standing at this point that knew anything about it, but I'm happy to do it. It I enjoy it. So we set it up every year. You know, the local municipalities, I feel, you know, it's our duty to be involved in these chapters, to keep the chapters alive, to pass them on to the next generation, and that way people can get together, talk about the code, solve problems, you know, do some training as well. But but yes, I take great joy and pride of this uh of doing it, and I'm glad the the board has allowed me or directed me to do that. So I enjoyed it. I look forward to everybody coming and enjoying time. It's in January 24th, 2026 this year, and it's a Saturday, and no excuses. I want you all there.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, it's always a good time. It's a really neat venue right on the water. The food is always great, and we always seem to have a really good turnout, good group of people. And you you put I know you put a lot of time and effort into this, and so I wanted to say thank you for that because you know nobody knows what they don't know, and and it it doesn't just happen. There's a lot of work that goes behind it. So thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00A lot of work, and you know, we do a lot of outreach. We reach out to all of our partners and all of our consultants, which without them, we can't make this happen. They they donate their time and they donate monetary to donations and gift prizes. You know, I want to give a big shout out to all of our sponsors and all of the consultants that come in and and make this happen.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And with that, sir, I wanted to bring our conversation to a close. I would love to get any closing thoughts you may have.
SPEAKER_00Livermore is a is a great place to work, and without the team, without the people, you know, from the
Teamwork, Metrics, And Gratitude
SPEAKER_00permit text, from the front counter people, from the plan review, from our admin folks, from the inspectors, neighborhood preservation uh officers, to the to the leadership in those positions, to to you to you, Greg, and and and to and to Blake, I want, you know, highlight you guys' efforts and and and what you do on there. I mean, you, your team did your neighborhood preservation team, code enforcement did 1,700 cases last year, and you guys closed almost 93, 95, 4% of those were solved and and taken care of. Our inspection team, they did about 24,000 inspectors la inspections last year, and we did about 150 uh special events, we did about 3,500 plan reviews, we issued more than you know 6,500 permits. This is just last year. We issued about 800 addresses, and we we made we did about 1100 residential reports. So we are so busy, and I'm very thankful to this team, and I wanna give them a big shout out and a heartfelt appreciation.
SPEAKER_01I'm tired listening to all those numbers. I think when I come in Monday, I'm gonna ask for a raise, but yeah, I didn't know that we were that busy. I know that we were busy, and so I'm always, you know, there's a competitive edge. I'm always comparing us to other jurisdictions, and it always seems that we do more with less. I compare, you mentioned the inspections. There's some jurisdictions that have almost twice as many inspectors and do the same amount of inspections. So I don't know what your hack is, how you get us to do all that, but we get it done and it doesn't seem it almost seems effortless. So I guess go Livermore one more time, huh?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, go Livermore for sure.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Frank. It's been a pleasure. I love all the information, and I definitely want to have you back on. I think that uh we left a lot of things untouched, but uh we'll leave it for the next time, sir.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Greg. I appreciate uh you inviting me here. It's it's an honor to be on your on your show, and you know it's uh it's a pleasure working with you every day as well. Thank you, sir.
Closing Reflections And Listener Thanks
SPEAKER_01Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Tagus Talk. We really appreciate you spending part of your day with us. I took a moment to reflect on what it might have been like to be a young Frank in a combat zone, and suddenly my 99 problems became none. If you enjoyed this conversation or even got one helpful insight, make sure to follow the show on your favorite podcast app or on LinkedIn. We always invite your comments and share your experiences. Thanks again for being here. I wish you the best. Take care.